High Gravity
by hersheysmusicandtwilight
Summary: Werewolves can't live without their imprints. What would happen if an imprint didn't return the werewolf's feelings? What if they couldn't even stand to be around him, and they just...left?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody. This story is going to start out ike all my other Cat/Embry's. But something shall happen. It's going to get *ominous pause* _darker._**

**I figured, why not make it as heartstring-pulling as possible, since it is the last we're gonna hear from them, right?**

Embry's POV

You know what I hate? Like, more than anything else? More than dumb refs and snobby car owners and vampires? More than Quil barging into my house without so much as knocking, more than injunctions, more than Drew trying to get me to talk about the issues between our imprints even though said imprints had recently gotten completely over them?

Washington State University.

Why, you ask? Why would I hate such a large and nice and populated building than exists purely for the purpose of brightening people's futures? It's actually very reasonable, in my opinion. Me and that college have never gotten along. Like when I had just turned fifteen, Rachel got a scholarship and left La Push. I had kind of had a crush on her at the time, and we'd gotten to be pretty good friends. I had been _thisclose _to letting Jake know I liked her and asking her out and having my first real girlfriend. She was the only girl I'd ever really liked.

Since I was so crazy in love with Cathryn that _liking _her couldn't be farther from the truth and all the other girls I had dated were just blech.

Then, three years later, I was eighteen. I'd managed to convince Jacob and Sam that a werewolf could go to college and all that without messing everything up. I had made…ahem…decent grades and my soccer skills could have taken me to the pro's-my superhuman speed and strength had _nothing _to do with it, nope, not at all, just raw hard talent-and I sent in my application almost positive I'd make it in.

And then I didn't.

Don't ask me why. I know plenty of other guys who went there on a soccer scholarship and I could have kicked their butts any day of the week. How I ended up at some dinky tech school was completely beyond me. Do you people have any idea how much easier it would have been for me to get a job had I went there?

And now this.

When Cat had gone to college there last fall, it had been awful. I spent literally every moment thinking of her, wanting to be with her. Everything somebody said to me I had a ready-made response of what Cat would say back. I'd see somebody and think to myself, Cathryn would hate him. Or, Cat had prettier eyes. _She_ became my main characteristic. It was like I'd forgotten how to do anything else.

Not that I hadn't been like that anyway. But its amazing what big of a difference it can make knowing that your girlfriend could be crying in a bathroom somewhere and you won't be able to go check on her until that night. I was permanently scarred from it.

And now after the three glorious, wonderful, perfect, beautiful, peaceful months of pure happiness and contentment that was summer, I was going to have to do it again.

Term started for her in September. It was early August.

Meaning that I had exactly three weeks, two days, and seven hours to figure out how to set the place on fire without the pack finding out.

Cathryn's POV

My left breast was vibrating. Or rather, not my boob, but the phone inside its bra cup.

I groaned loudly and rolled over, sitting up from the splayed out staring-at-the-ceiling position I'd been in and pulled it out.

"Hello?" I mumbled, running my fingers through my newly poofy hair. Leslie had convinced me to sleep in a million tiny braids the night before and, I had to say, I wasn't loving the look.

"Cathryn!" Claire said. Only it was more like a hiss. Or a moan. A really weird combination.

I sat up straighter. "You okay, Clairedy-Cat?" I asked. Besides her freakish tone, she hadn't called me by the pet-name she'd given me at the ripe old age of five. That in itself was a big red flag that something was wrong.

"I got it." She whispered, so silently I had to strain to hear the words.

"Got what?" I demanded.

"IT." Claire repeated, her voice full of some secret meaning I was obviously supposed to comprehend.

"Um…what?" But of course I didn't. I never did. Knowing secret meanings involves actually paying attention to your surroundings, and that is something I am just not willing to do.

"_It!"_ Claire's voice was beginning to tinge with panick.

An awkward silence filled the phone cords. Why'd she have to be so danged _cryptic?_

"Oh." I said, suddenly understanding. "Your period? Ask one of your friends for a pad."

"None of them have gotten it yet." Her voice remained tense and quiet.

"Go to the nurse."

"I'm not telling _her!"_

"Call your mom."

"I'd rather ask the nurse."

"Emily?"

"Wouldn't answer her phone."

I sighed. Really, this was the school's fault. If it would start later, like colleges, Claire would not be having this problem. She'd be at home and all she'd have to do is sneak into her mother's bathroom. But no. She had to feel all self conscious and embarrassed and call her…well, in all honesty, all I was to her was her best friend's best friend's girlfriend. We were just a lot closer than a relationship like that would entail.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"The bathroom. I just barfed." She did sound kind of sickened.

I had to say, I wasn't surprised. Claire was what people called an 'early bloomer'. Meaning that while other girls were getting all exited over training bras, Claire was already in a c-cup, which was my size. She was also my height, which was unnerving, considering it didn't seem too long ago that I was carrying her around her house piggyback. Not only that, but she was still growing. Both up and out.

"Kay." I said bracingly. "I'll come get you."

* * *

"Call Claire Young to the office, please." I told the secretary, signing her out for the orthodontist.

Which probably wasn't the smartest thing, seeing as she didn't have braces.

The secretary gave me a cold, blank stare before spinning around in her wheelie chair and pressing the call-button thingy and doing as told. I didn't blame her for her unfriendliness. I'd have been in a crappy mood too if I was back at school.

Claire showed up a few minutes later, skin sallow, expression fierce, and shoulders hunched.

Hmm…not obvious at all…..

"Hey." I grinned shamelessly at her pain.

She glared, her kinky hair falling over one eye and further adding to her unhappily disheveled manner. Wordlessly, she held out her hand to me. Wordlessly, I placed a white square into her palm.

"Hurry up." I told her. "Embry's at work, it's sunny for once, and I'm bored out of my brains. I have plans for us."

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Claire's expression turned even more surly.

This time I had to laugh. "What? You aren't getting out of the cookout tonight, I don't care how bloated you are."

Claire looked horrorstruck. "You mean at the _beach? _Wearing _bathing suits?"_

"Well," I said thoughtfully. "That is typically what is worn at beaches."

"Uh-uh!" Claire said, taking a literal step back. "You mean I have to where a _tampon?"_

**So. Didja like?**


	2. Chapter 2

Embry's POV

Emily and Kim were nestled snuggly in the arms of Sam and Jared, despite the warm air and the heat of their arms. They were the only two girls who were not in bikinis. Instead they wore loose floral print shirts with a sash just beneath the chest, showing off the newly grown bump on both of their stomachs. They had the rest of forever to have children, but Emily had already had Nate and she didn't want him being raised an only child. Kim, however, had no problem with that, as long as it was assured that her child wouldn't be alone in its generation of wolves. So the two had stopped taken their pill and began trying to get pregnant in the spring, an act that was easily accomplished and now well into motion. Their hands rested on the bump and they wore heartbreakingly sweet smiles as they discussed baby showers, names, and genders, with their husbands commenting on the rare occasion that they actually had an opinion other than "Whatever you want, baby".

Rachel and Paul and Mikki and Drew and the unimprinted wolves sat in a large group around the fire, joking and laughing and generally goofing off. Quil was with them too, as Claire had suddenly decided she couldn't come. A fact that had, when mentioned to Cathryn, elicited a knowing smirk that I come to recognize as her _you don't want to know _face.

Jacob and Nessie were off to the side, wrapped up in their own little world. They whispered and smiled and kissed and blushed and wondered at their luck at each belonging to the other and generally looking like the couple in love about to be separated for the semester that they were. Seth and Keilly and Leslie and Collin were doing pretty much the same.

Or at least that what I would assume that's what they were doing. I didn't know. Cathryn and I were about half a mile off from the others. Not even on the beach. More like the woods. The edge of the woods, just far enough off that nobody would see us. This was nessicary on account of our not behaving very well.

Although we'd be behaving a heck of a lot worse, if I had any say in the matter.

Which I didn't.

I was lying face up on the ground, my arms wrapped around her slim waist, which was on top of me. She was up on her elbows, one resting on either side of my neck, a hand on my cheek and the other cupping my neck. We'd been kissing like this for more or less the duration of the cookout with no interruptions. I was trying very hard to be good, but I was only human -sort of-, and I had wants just like every other guy in the world. Only mine were way stronger, because I had Cathryn.

I had about four minutes left of this before Cathryn decided that it had been too long or I crossed some sort of invisible line she had drawn and we would have to stop. I knew it would happen, Cat knew it would happen. There was really no point in prolonging it.

I rolled over and got on my hands and knees, bringing her up with me. For a brief moment, Cathryn reacted exact way I wanted her to and wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms tightly around my neck, holding herself to me and deepening the kiss. I tried to concentrate, to memorize the way this felt, the way her body felt. The way she smelled, tasted. Because when this was over I was going to want to remember.

And then it was.

She took her lips off mine, disentangled her legs, and let her arms fall until she was no longer in midair and staying that way through only connection to me, but resting on the ground beneath me, smiling ruefully. She looked beautiful there, her auburn hair fanning out around her, a few loose strands cutting across her face just right and extenuating her high cheekbones. Her green eyes seemed to glow against the reds and brown of her complexion. Her usually pale skin was darker than usual from tan-it had been one of La Push's sunniest summers-and her cheeks were pink.

"We have to stop." She told me.

"I disagree." I said back, feeling a smile tugging at my lips.

My stomach chose this moment to growl, very loudly and demandingly, distracting Cathryn from whatever sharp response she undoubtedly had.

"You stomach apparently doesn't." She laughed. "Come on." She rolled over, out from under me and got up. "There's food back with everybody else."

Cathryn's POV

"Cathryn, Go away." Leslie commanded, pointing imperiously in the direction opposite of which she was heading. "You are no fun."

I shrugged and, as I had been known to do on very rare occasion, did what I was told. This was on account of I'd been wanting to do just that for nearly all day. I had no idea why Leslie and Keilly had invited me here anyway. I mean, they knew good and well that I hated shopping. Hated it the way werewolves hated vampires. But apparently they'd thought I would be a better companion than Nessie, because she wasn't here, lucky dog.

Or maybe they just knew her family well enough by now to know that Alice had bought all her clothes for the semester by now, and even if she hadn't the only stores she'd allow Nessie inside of were far too expensive for us lower life-forms.

Whatever the reason, I was exceedingly jealous of her as I headed out of the mall. In five hours or so, when Keilly and Leslie were ready to leave they could call me. In the meantime, I fully intended to take advantage of my time in the big city and see a movie or something.

The automatic doors opened as I approached the exit, and I walked outside, unable to disguise the triumphant grin spreading across my face. I had known they'd get bored of me sooner or later. I wondered aimlessly around the parking lot for a while, trying to find my Porshe. I, being the forgetful dingbat that I am, had absolutely no earthly idea where I had parked it. But it surprised me when I finally found it around back with only one other car. There were free parking spaces, I remembered. It seemed stupid even for me to circle all the way back here.

But I shrugged it off. I wouldn't put it past me to park on the roof.

I started towards it.

I'd barely made it two steps when something appeared in front of me. I stumbled, surprised. An ice cold hand grabbed my shoulder, steadying me and holding me firmly in place. I looked up and found myself staring into a pair of exceedingly odd but chillingly familiar eyes.

Blood red eyes.

"Hello, Cathryn." The vampire said, smiling coldly.

I stared mutely. I had seen him before. And no, it wasn't that he was a vamp and I routinely hung out with the Cullens. I realize that the thing with my car lead you to believe the opposite, but I can be observant when need be.

On occasion.

"Do-" I started to speak, but my voice came out all raspy. I cleared my throat and tried again. "Do I know you?"

The vampire's smile widened. "Very good," He approved. "But no, you do not. You saw me, sure, but we never interacted. I am Derek. You met my mate, Amamnda."

__

Amanda.

I squinted and tilted my head to the side, trying to remember where I'd heard the name.

Suddenly, it all came back to me, as easily as if I was watching it on replay. Second by torturous second.

I gasped. "No!" I said, staggering back. Or I would have, had he not been gripping my shoulders with such harshness that they were beginning to throb. "You-she-" I struggled to find words. "They killed you all." I finally managed.

"Ah, no." He said. "I escaped. Amanda used her gift to get me out undetected." Regret flickered briefly in his features. "She should have used it for herself."

I felt dizzy with fear.

Amanda had kidnapped me along with the other imprints more than four years ago. The Volturi had changed a group of promising humans and sent them to spy on the wolves and find their weaknesses. They'd found that weakness in their imprints, and so we had been taken with the intent of being killed, thus destroying the wolves. Thankfully, my friend Cocoa had fallen in love with one of the vampires, Heath, and when he found that she'd been taken along with the rest of us, he bailed and lead the pack to where we were kept. I'd almost forgotten the memory, but now it came back. The panick, the agony. Being forced inside a building I did not expect to come out of. Knowing that if anything happened to me, Embry would be hurt.

It wasn't really something I wanted to relive, if you know what I mean.

"Don't worry, darling." He said, seeing the look on my face. "I have relocated. Joined a new coven, switched my loyalties. You're friends will be fine. You will live. But you do have to do something for me."

I'd stopped caring after 'your friends will be okay'. "And if I don't?" I inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Anger flashed in his bloody eyes, and his fingers, though I wouldn't have thought it possible, gripped me harder. "That would be very bad for you Embry, now, wouldn't it?"

I felt like I'd been slapped. He knew my weakness just like he had known Embry's. He knew the one thing I wasn't willing to risk, and he intended to use it against me. I didn't know how powerful his coven was, and I didn't care. All I could see was the war last Christmas. It had nearly killed me to see Embry go off like that, fighting numbers and powers foreign and unpredictable to him. My heart had broken, seeing his mangled body lying there among those he had killed.

I opened my mouth slowly, uncertainly. I felt disconnected from my body some how. Now that I knew I was going to do what he asked, even if it destroyed me, I was his puppet. "What do you want?" I whispered. I couldn't be any louder than that.

Derek smiled again. "You are to break up with Embry." He said lazily. "You are to tell him you no longer love him, no longer want him. Be very convincing. Then you shall come back here and meet me, tomorrow night." He took in my baffled expression, and explained, "It's the only way to assure no one will follow you."

I didn't speak. I didn't move. I wasn't sure that I could.

Derek let me go and pushed me towards my car gently, like he was guiding me. "Go on now. You have twenty-four hours left with him! Enjoy it!"

I went robotically to my car, opening it and getting in and starting it. There was no doubt in my mind of what I was going to do, obviously. I was going to chuck him, hopefully in a way believable to him so the pack wouldn't tail me as I was taken to…wherever the heck this psycho wanted me. I didn't think for a second that this guy wouldn't squash me like the spineless little worm I was. When compared to him, anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

Embry's POV

Silence.

That was what I heard as I drove Cathryn home from Jacob and Quil's. What I felt. That almost never happened. Not unless something very bad was going on. For Cat and me, comfortable silences justdidn't exist. We were either listening to the radio, the volume so loud that I feared for our eardrums, or talking so fast in so many words that we stumbled over each other in effort to get them out.

And it wasn't my imagination. Jacob and Quil and Renessmee, who'd been there, too, had noticed. She didn't speak hardly the whole time. That in itself wasn't entirely unusual, as Cathryn didn't talk too much with people except for me. She didn't mean too, she just got lost in her own little world where nothing existed but music and dancing and pretty colors. She had the art of daydreaming down to a science.

But this was different, and we all felt it. She wasn't off in some parallel universe. She was much too alert for that. She jumped at small noises. When she thought I wasn't looking, her eyes followed my every move. Of course she didn't know that I was always looking. But when she did know I was looking, she'd avoid my gaze like the black plague. And she was always touching me. Leaning on my shoulder or sitting in my lap or tracing the veins in my wrist, the lines on my hand. But she never kissed me.

It had gotten to the point where Nessie pulled me aside and asked me if something had happened to her. And I had to reply that I didn't know, which may as well have been German. When it came to Cathryn, I _always _knew. No exceptions. Jake and Quil didn't bother. They knew from my expression that I was just as ignorant as they were. Her mood, whatever it was, settled over us like a fog, taking all of us to the dark depression she was in. So I'd left with her. There was no point in hanging out with people if it was going to be awkward and miserable the whole time.

But now it was so much worse. I was alone with her in a car, left to soak up her indignance by myself. I finally understood what she meant when she complained about the radio not being on. She was always trying to explain it to me. Quiet was actually the loudest thing out there.I didn't turn anything on, though. I wanted her to start talking, to tell me about what had happened and why she was acting like this. She usually told me everything, sometimes more than what I wanted to know. Because she knew I was the only one she could trust not to judge, not to tell, not to feel anything but what she felt. I kept waiting for her to let me fix it.

But she never did.

Cathryn's POV

In romance novels, when the girls talk about the guys they end up with, they always talk about the way it feels when they touch him. They feel shaky, like the way they feel for them is so strong that they can't even handle it. And it scares them, it makes them uncomfortable, but its so wonderful, so addictive, that they could never go back to their life without him. Like his very presence made the world around them just fall to pieces, but his touch rebuilt a new one, a better one.

I had recently decided that that wasn't the way at all that I felt when I was with Embry. I mean, I'd probably known since forever, but I'd only just made the conscious realization.

As you probably know by now, I'm not the most put together person in the world. I forget things, I lose things, I accidentally destroy things. I forget to listen, forget to perform, forget to consider. It was too easy for me to retreat inside myself, to become totally oblivious to the world around me. And I could never stop. So every few months, what would end up happening was everything I'd recklessly ignored would catch up to me, and I'd be forced back into reality to find that I had so much to do, so much to make up. Too much, and almost no time. I wasn't wonder woman. The very prospect of accomplishing what needed to be done terrified me.

But when I touched Embry, all that went away. If I needed something braught to me, I could call him and I knew he would bring it. If I couldn't do something, I'd get him to. If I said the wrong thing to the wrong person and some one was mad, it was never Embry. Occasionally something happened that was more than that and I was in dangerously close vicinity of getting my face pounded in. But Embry beat them to it every time.

He was the ultimate safety net. Nothing could touch me when I was with him, nothing bad could ever happen. Like a little child in the arms of a mother, there was nothing he couldn't save me from. And believe me, that was no blind faith. I had pushed the limits. Anything you could do for a person Embry had done for me without thinking twice. In his arms my world, which was usually spinning out of control, was completely still.

Now. That was great and all, but the downside of having some one like that was you got to feeling like that protection was real. And it wasn't. It was a feeling, an idea. When Derek had come to me and told me what I was to do, I hadn't been able to get to see Embry fast enough. And when I had he had more than lived up to my expectations. I felt lazy, almost lethargic with the walls he built around me. I still knew what I had to do, but with him there it had seemed so much easier.

But that was over. I was in my room, all alone, and it was all I could do to keep myself upright from the weight of what I was feeling. Don't ask me what it was. I couldn't tell you. I just knew that I'd never in my life felt that bad. My father dying was like a field of clovers in comparison. Without even meaning to, I crumbled to the ground, my body rocking from the sobs that had come on too quickly for me to see coming. I'd never wanted his heat, his beautiful eyes that I'd always taken for granted more than I did at that moment. I never knew it was possible to feel the kind of pain that I felt.

Maybe Embry was going to be hurt. Maybe he'd live the rest of his life wishing for me and crying himself to sleep over me and seeing my face behind his eyelids whenever his closed those brown orbs. But at least he'd be alive. I wouldn't be. I could feel myself leaving, retreating into lala land for the last time, too weary and frightened to ever come back out.

**Sniff sniff. So sad. **

**And kind of cheesy now that I reread it. But you've got to take into consideration the fact that these are SOIULMATES we are talking about. I mean, what is their relationship if not a little corny from time to time?**

**Besides. Mostly its sad.**

****


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